Selected poems:
“You wonder what the moon in all of its opaque resplendence would become tonight
The Account Journal: There are no synonyms for catharsis
without a beholder and with its lights of
silver left hemorrhaging into this empty room while we drown ourselves within a lullaby”
“My father knows me by names
Palette Poetry: Child of the sea
that are not mine.
Tonight, I’m the fishwife.”
“At nightfall, I mould scraps of experiments
adda: Little Black Bodies
into paper mash puddings
and swallow two balls for dinner.
Two is a complete number”
“a dagger navigating through a gulf of wire curls
Beloit Poetry Journal: In Telephone Conversation with My Father Where He Enquires About My Marriage Plans
meets the centre point of my forehead
just after he spells out the words”
“but if I knew one person in the world who could die
A Long House: Old Coffee Shop and Other Poems
for others, it was you,
if anything on this table is bitter, it must be my coffee
stripped of milk,
and if any heart in this café needs forgiveness
it must be mine.”
“I want to say to a century of twinkling species overhead:
Lolwe: Woodsmoke and other poems
I too have been touched by wildfire in a previous life
I too, have memorized the simple art
of free- falling.”
Chisom Okafor 